Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Sometimes you watch An Evening of Awesome after crashing through over a thousand vlogbrothers videos and you just want to write. But it's 11:18pm and you've got to do so much tomorrow and really, if you're going to write, it should be for work. You don't want to write for work, though, you just want to put words down that have everything to do with nothing at all. You remember that you had a blog for that once where you just.. wrote. And ranted. And were who you wanted to be at that instance.

This is not a status update, and it's more than 140 characters long. I just wanted to write. I wanted to say hello to the endless connection of ones and zeros that means that anyone and no one at all could be reading this, now and hopefully for forever. I wanted to sound smart and thoughtful, and worth remembering. Worth mentioning. Worth having a stake in this endless abyss of creativity. Didn't think that this would get that deep? Neither did I.

But I digress. This isn't why I opened this editor. Those worlds above are not why you're reading this now.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

This week I wrote about Nuns on the Run, which is a game about being Novices sneaking around in a Nunnery at midnight. It's a lot of fun, pretty silly, and is basically capture the flag in a Nunnery. So, there's that. Look! A Blurb!

You read that right. Aside from the guards, everyone else’s moves are kept secret. Novices keep track of their locations by making notes on their own sheet of paper. As far as the Nuns, and the player playing them knows, everyone’s tucked into their beds and dozing soundly. The game starts with this being true enough, and then the Novices get the chance to blitz out of their cells and run as far as they can go before the old ladies get started on their rounds.

In completely unrelated news, I've been making things! Things that I said I would make like.. a year ago. Sorry about that, Internet. But, the good news is that these things are awesome, and there will be many tutorials about them coming soon. Sneak peek!!!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

After last week's dive into the hardcore worker-placement game Tzolk'in, I decided to slow it down a bit and look at a game that should be on every gamers shelf: Carcassonne.

That’s really all there is to this game. There’s no hand limit because there’s no hand, there’s no trading, no money, just tiles and meeples. Every turn in Carcassonne you draw a random tile and then connect it to one already played. Sometimes you get a tile that works with the city or road you’re trying to build, and sometimes you get a tile that can only go in two possible locations, both of which hurt you more than help. Either way, you have to place the tile you draw. You’re only limited to where you place the tile by the roads and cities drawn on it. Roads can’t end at the edge of a field, they have to go someplace, and cities aren’t completed if they have an edge without a wall. Cloisters simply need to be surrounded on all sides, but what surrounds them, as long as it’s legally built, doesn’t matter.

Head on over to GrE to find out what exactly makes this game a classic.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

This week at GrE, I tried my hand writing about a game with a bit more complexity. It's not the simplest game in town, but it's a great one for those hardcore gamers out there looking for something new.

The first thing that people notice when they see this game isn’t the slew of pieces — that’s second — but instead the six plastic gears on the board. Six beautifully cast gears begging to be played with. The one in the center is especially tempting, with its detailed engravings and the knowledge that its movement will affect all of the others, for it is this master gear that controls… pause, cue dramatic music… all of time. Okay, well maybe not all of time. Just the 26 days-slash-rounds that make up the game.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Some of you may have noticed already, though most likely not. The url for this site has now changed to just plain old ThinkCraftyThoughts.com. It took me awhile to finally secure the url, as it was previously owned by someone with similar intentions as I, but apparently slightly less resolve.

In addition to buying a domain name for a blog I've had for 3 years, I also recently cut off all my hair. Well, not all of it, but it feels like all of it.

Hair at 8am...

Hair at 9:30am...

Oh luscious locks, you will be missed.. eventually. For now, just rest easy in the knowledge that you have been sent to Locks of Love, to be made into a gorgeous wig for a child in need.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Get your SARS masks ready! This week over at GamesAreEvil.com I take a look at the highly infectious co-op Pandemic!

The game starts with an epidemic in random locations, determined by the top nine cards on the Infection Deck. Diseases are denoted in this game by adorable little colored blocks, which you will learn to respect and loathe by the end of your first time playing. These seemingly innocent cubes are placed in a city whenever that city’s card is drawn from the Infection Deck. The more cubes present in a city, the more active and dangerous that disease is.

Jump over to read more, but mind you cover your mouth if you feel the need to sneeze.

About Me

I'm a geeky girl that's gone a bit knitty. With my corgi sidekick Ichi, I take on the world one adventure at a time. Sometimes I blog the adventures, sometimes I tweet them, and sometimes I write reviews about them (the tabletop kind, at least).